Archive for March, 2011

﻿﻿Oakland Athletics- It isn’t that this team is hated as much as they aren’t liked. For the last five year, the Athletics have shown up in the top five lowest attendance rates, which is the longest streak amongst any team. It’s very rare to come across a diehard Athletics hater, but apparently it isn’t easy to [...]

Jesus Montero losing the major league back-up catcher's job—a job the New York Yankees desperately wanted him to win—has had an impact above and beyond sending GM Brian Cashman on a mad search for a reliable back-up catcher.In fact, Montero's being dispatched to the minor leagues has created an unfortunate domino effect; the [...]

Mark Teixeira is a notorious slow starter.His lifetime batting average in March and April is .235. He’s a .294 hitter in the other months. He hits a home run every 27 at-bats in March and April. He homers every 15.8 at-bats in the other months.His early batting averages the past two years have been dreadful.2010: .136, two HRs 2009: .200, [...]

Heading into the season, while many felt the Yankees' best arrangement would be with Brett Gardner sitting atop the lineup, the constant chatter was that Derek Jeter would remain the leadoff hitter. For better or worse, the Yankees legend was getting the limelight, despite a .348 OBP in the leadoff spot in ’10, while Gardner would be [...]

Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier has quickly risen up the ranks from breakout star to Triple Crown contender to MLB All-Star. Ethier is a staple in the middle of the LA lineup, and he showed in 2009 that he has the ability to carry a team with clutch performance in the postseason. This season, however, may ultimately be his lame duck [...]

If you're a fan of the New York Yankees, the 2010-11 off-season must have felt like one, long nightmare.
First, the dreaded Boston Red Sox landed stud first baseman Adrian Gonzalez in a trade with the San Diego Padres. Then, just a couple days later, the Red Sox swooped in, seemingly out of nowhere, and signed outfielder Carl Crawford, a player [...]

Gwen awakened from a fitful sleep. She was bothered and knew that she would be bothered for a long time. Her idol, her favorite player, the man they referred to as A-Rod, was no longer the best third baseman in New York.Her mind was immediately filled with A-Rod's 2010 statistics. He was coming off the worst year of his career. A-Rod's .270 [...]

Last year, the New York Yankees fell short in the playoffs, losing to the Texas Rangers in the American League Championship. With a new season approaching and a couple new players to the team, who needs to have a good season for the Yankees to see success?
1. CC Sabathia: With the losses of Andy Pettitte and Javier Vasquez from the Yankees' [...]

New York Yankees recently-named fifth starter Freddy Garcia finished spring training strong, allowing just one run on four hits with two walks and three strikeouts over 4.2 innings in an Opening Day preview against the Tigers. Garcia, who ended the exhibition season with a 4.91 ERA, threw 51 of his 79 pitches for strikes and worked out of trouble [...]

Many baseball fans place a kind of special significance on a starting pitcher "winning" 20 games in a season. Twenty game-winners are often by default considered serious candidates for that year's Cy Young Award. Even greater significance is given to pitchers who "win" 300 games over the course of their career. Every 300-game [...]